February 2026 Recap

I’ve been trying to trim down some cards and revisit my strategy. Here is the recap for the month.

Cards Opened:

• None - will probably open an atmos summit for P2 when I find a 100k link that works again

Bank account bonuses:

• None - will look to apply for some more before EOM.

Bonuses Hit:

• [P1] Amex Hilton Aspire - 175k MR + FNC - 6k/6m

• [P1] Citi AAdvantage Select - 80k AA Miles - 1k/3m

• [P2] Amex Biz Gold - 200k MR - 15k/3m

Points Earned (including SUBs)

• Amex:

  • P1: ~100,000

  • P2: 206,698

• Chase:

  • 0

• Citi:

  • 0

• Hilton:

  • 184,000

• AA:

  • 82,000

• Alaska:

  • 7

Cancelled / Downgraded:

• Amex personal plat - cancelled

  • I tried various times to get a retention offer since I do enjoy this card and the new SUB requires 4k more in spend (12k/6m I think). I chatted with reps twice and called in over the phone, all same retention of 3k spend for 15k points, which is just not worth it. AF is high too and already have biz plats I can leverage FHR for (my main use of the plat family)

Other activity

• Scaled my buying group activity a bit. I was able to get about $30k worth of iPads before I got too stressed out trying to manage various issues that come with buying groups. I was able to automate a lot of my flows, and get my profiles / accounts properly setup. Looking for more deals and perhaps different groups.

Onward

• Scale BG more

  • Be ready for drops

  • Isolate accs per group

• Trim budget as I enter tax season - still waiting for various money to settle

• Look to offload points to cash — Amex Biz checking or other??? (p2 - other, p1 biz checking I’m thinking)

• Introduce BG to other cards in wallet - need to create accs for those cards (thinking robinhood gold card for 3% CB, some of the chase cards)

• I got banned from chase last January, I am thinking of reapplying to see if I am a forever ban or a temp CC ban. I think I will try first with a partner card like world of hyatt business card for instance… Should be interesting!